5 popular Pokemon GO features that were discontinued by Niantic

Pokemon GO has undergone many changes over the years, but not all of them have been well-received by players. Niantic has made some missteps that have caused frustration and disappointment among the player base. In fact, some of the changes that were made to the game that players loved were later removed with little explanation, leaving many feeling disappointed and frustrated.

This article lists five changes that were met with heavy criticism from the game's playerbase.

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Pokemon GO's top 5 controversial changes

1) No more free Remote Raid Passes

Official artwork for Pokemon GO showcasing different Raid Battles (Image via Niantic)

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, Niantic made a lot of accommodations for players who live in crowded areas to allow them to still play their favorite mobile game while also following social distancing guidelines. One of these changes was the implementation of free daily Remote Raid Passes.

However, Niantic reversed this change after the pandemic ended without providing any explanation, and this led many players to assume that it was to encourage them to leave their homes and explore more in order to collect their location data.

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2) Community Day time limit

Official artwork for the next Community Day event for Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

During the 2020 Pandemic, Niantic doubled the time limit for the monthly Community Day event to allow people who were stuck at home more time to participate and catch the spotlight creature. However, the company later decided to revoke this change without giving a clear reason, leading many to speculate that it was another move to collect location data.

This decision has been met with widespread criticism, and it's now common to see comments on the game's social media pages expressing disappointment over the removal of the time extension.

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3) Stardust Gifts

Official imagery showcasing Gifts and 7-Kilometer Eggs in Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

A bit more of an obscure choice, the gifting system in the mobile game used to be a lot different. Rather than just telling trainers that they cannot open gifts once their bag is full, the gifts used to grant them a varying amount of stardust based on what was in the box.

Since a lot of players do not want to have to spend money for storage upgrades or get rid of commonly overstocked items like Poke Balls, this mechanic was a great way to make farming stardust much easier. However, for some reason, this was removed in August 2022.

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4) 10-Slot Gyms

Gyms and Gym Badges are a staple among every aspect of the Pokemon franchise (Image via The Pokemon Company)

Back when Prestiging was a feature in Pokemon GO, gyms functioned very differently than they do now. The biggest difference comes in the form of the number of creatures trainers could register to defend one of these spots. At one point, players could have up to 10 creatures defending a particular spot rather than the current limit of six Pokemon.

This change also introduced the limitation of only having one creature of a given species in the gym at a time. While the other changes discussed so far have some kind of corporate motivation, it is unclear why this particular change was made.

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5) Remote Raid price increase

Official imagery for Pokemon GO (Image via Niantic)

The latest newsletter for Pokemon GO proposed changes that seem to have received backlash from the community. Niantic revealed that they were doubling the price of purchasable Raid Passes from the store to discourage remote raiding.

Additionally, they also announced a limit on the number of remote raids that players can complete in a day, which has been set to only five. These changes have been widely criticized, and many players consider them to be the worst in the game's recent history.